Volleyball team wins some, loses others
The Eagles volleyball team traveled more than 40 hours this past weekend to play the Western New Mexico Mustangs and the New Mexico Highlands Cowgirls. Being in a bus for that long wasn’t the way most athletes would want to spend their fall break, but was worth it in the end.
Chadron State’s volleyball team had a split for the weekend, losing to Western in four sets, and winning to Highlands in four sets. The win against Highlands broke the Eagles seven-match losing streak, and provided the momentum the team needs.
“We came within points of victory multiple times, but now they have a taste of victory,” head interim Coach Janel Baily said.
The weekend started off rough with an RMAC loss to Western New Mexico, however. The Eagle’s team had an overall hitting percentage of .087, while Western had .232. Leading hitter for Western was Angelina Pulu, who had 16 kills.
She also contributed to the Mustangs’ defense with 19 digs. Other big hitters for Western was Ziona Verhulsdonk who spiked 14 balls and 12 more were from Heather Rux.
For Chadron, outside hitter Erika Roybal, sophomore of Denver, led with 13 kills. Teammates Mallory Irvine, junior middle hitter of Ravenna, and Mollie Jones, senior outside hitter of Longmont, Colo., added 11 and 7 kills respectively. There were no other CSC hitters that averaged above a .100 hitting percentage for the night.
Following the loss, the Eagle’s geared up for the game against New Mexico Highlands’ and came out on top with scores of 25-23, 21-25, 25-20, and 25-14 for their second RMAC win.
The team improved from a .087 hitting percentage on Friday, to a killer .226 percentage on Saturday night.
Contributing the most was Jones with 11 kills, having a match high .333 hitting percentage. The rest of the team hit pretty evenly was well. Irvine had 10 kills and Roybal added seven. Lexi Hoagland, senior right side hitter of Rushville and Jessica Jester, junior middle hitter of Cheyenne, Wyo., both had 6 kills as well. Jester also had two of the Eagles’ six aces, and four blocks. Chadron’s game at the net was a big factor in the win. The team ended with 15 blocks.
On defense, Libero Kristina Harter, senior of Colorado Springs, Colo., had 17 digs and and two back row kills. For the weekend, Harter totaled 40 digs, a great feat as she was absent the previous weekend due to injury.
Leading with assists was freshman setter of Phoenix, Ariz., Justine Ackie with 21.
“The girls did a good job of adjusting from the game on Friday to the game on Saturday. They stuck to the game plans and executed the offense very well,” Baily said.
CSC’s volleyball team plays three home games with the first being against CSU-Pueblo on Thursday. Friday the Eagle’s face Western State and Adams State on Saturday. All games are RMAC games and scheduled to start at 7 p.m.
“I hope we can draw nice sized crowds and have the supportive community there to add to our home court advantage,” Baily said.